Thanks to the miracle of Bit Torrent, I was able to see A Coffin for the Sheriff, a relatively obscure 1965 Italo-western starring Anthony Steffen and shot in large part in and around the same town set as was used in A Fistful of Dollars.

While I wouldn't say that A Coffin for the Sheriff is bad, I've definitely seen better. The film has appeal beyond the occasional episode of, "Hey, I recognize that façade!" I found it interesting that the character of Shenandoah was largely a decent fellow, whereas many later Italo-westerns delved so deeply into the nihilistic side of the subgenre that their protagonists were little better than the men they killed.

Anyway, as I mentioned, the film came out in 1965 (after Fistful of Dollars) and even uses some of the same locations. That makes it definitively post-Leone.

ok?

I thought we were talking about pre leone.

If you want an above average pre-leone you should check out "The Hills run red". Interestingly it came out a few months before FOD and it has the same style and cynical attitude. So I guess Leone cannot take full credit for creating a genre.

Just watched Coffin For The Sheriff -i'll write some more under Weissers thread because as usual his review is a pile of crap-but this is a MEDIOCRE sw (not even in my top 150) and unfortunately Shenandoah is a dull role for Steffen,catch him in the excellent No Room To Die instead . He ain't quite the decent fellow(harbouring counterfeit money) as stated(thankfully) as Fajardo will attest judging by the number of shots Steffen tactifully puts into him before killing him-and the other guys he doesn't hesistate too much to gun down.

A COFFIN FOR THE SHERIFF- 1965-A pretty good Anthony Steffen western who enjoyed a great deal of popularity throughout the cycle although nearly all his films are just average with none of them being overly memorable. It isn’t a bad thing only none I’ve seen particularly stand out. This is one of the better ones with some good action scenes, a beautiful damsel in distress and a vicious villain played by the always Eduardo Fajardo.

This is a Caiano movie, a guarantee for mediocrity. Still this has 2 or 3 points of interest: Fajardo's performance (always spot on othe various expressions required from the situation), the final shootout which is original (or at least I never saw it before).

Who says (at IMDB) that there is no reason for the title has missed some lines.Someone has made much of Luciana Gilli: I think her bloated face is no attractive at all.

Who says (at IMDB) that there is no reason for the title has missed some lines.

Perhaps in Italian? The english print has no mention of a coffin for a sheriff. There is a sheriff, and if I recall he does get killed but a coffin is not provided.

Saw this many months ago (might have been a year already) and I enjoyed this quite a bit. I wouldn't call it mediocre, more like traditional.And as Titoli said, the final showdown in the town square is good.

I'll definitely agree on that count. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with the movie.

Actually, it does. When Shenandoah is captured by Lupe Rojo's gang after discovering that he is the traitor (about 50 minutes into the movie), Lupe tells one of his men: "Pablo, go have a look in your graveyard and see if there is a coffin in good condition". Obviously, the idea was to kill Shenandoah. Later, towards the end of the movie, we find that Shenandoah is in fact US Marshall Joe Logan.

THe movie is OK to watch, though the acting is more than questionable: the fight scenes are not too convincing, the kissing between Lupe's woman and Shenandoah is clearly fake, etc. I liked the score from Francesco de Masi and the song "I am an lone and angry man" by Peter Tevis.